Social Acceptance as a Prerequisite for Social Sustainability

Of the three dimensions of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social—the social aspect is often the least well understood. However, social acceptance is a prerequisite to social sustainability: if a technology is rejected by a society or its members, it is not viable. Social acceptability can be studied using well-known survey techniques, and the information gathered can inform further efforts to understand the social sustainability of technologies. Eco-toilets (composting and urine diversion toilets) provide an excellent example of a technology that appears to be environmentally and economically sustainable, according to various measures, but might not be socially viable. In this research, preliminary analyses of some economic and environmental measures were followed by a household questionnaire to examine the social acceptability of eco-toilets. The questionnaire instrument was designed specifically for this purpose and queries attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs surrounding eco-toilets themselves as well as other related areas, such as risk and sensitivity to disgust. This instrument was implemented in a case study in coastal Massachusetts, where eco-toilets have been proposed as one potential solution to environmental pollution problems caused in large part by household sewage waste. Data collected with this questionnaire provide critical insight into factors influencing social acceptance of environmentally promising technologies. These insights can inform further efforts toward increasing social acceptance in the hope that eco-toilets could become a socially sustainable sanitation solution, or efforts toward inventing or selecting and evaluating alternative technologies that could sustainably meet household sanitation needs.